I have a Savage 12 LRP on 6.5 Creedmoor, and I ran into an issue the first time I had it out. Every few rounds, the bolt would come back hard. After about the 25th round, it didn't come back at all. I tugged and messed with it, but I ended up having to take it home and tap the bolt handle firmly (but carefully) with a rubber mallet until it released. I was using hornady match 120 gr Amax's. Respectable ammo. Does anybody have experience with this? Are there any home remedies for a Burr in the chamber? I have a pretty steady hand when it comes to Metalworking, but don't have a lot of experience in gunsmithing.

I suppose most of what I recommend will seem obvious but here goes anyway... First off take the bolt out and shine a flashlight down the chamber. If you don't see anything obvious like the aforementioned bur or rough marks in the chamber, try swabbing it out with acetone to dissolve any coatings that could be in there. Then clean the rifle as normal and take it out and shoot it again. If the problem persists, take it back to the dealer that sold it to you and talk to them about sending it in for warranty work...

@Evad: As you know, when you lift the bolt handle, primary extraction occurs, and after that event, things should work pretty easily. A hard bolt lift, is a classic sign of excessive chamber pressures due to either the ammunition or maybe the chamber (leade's too short, or neck is too small, etc.).

However, that is not what you described. You said that the bolt is hard to pull back. I will take you precisely at your word, and to me that would seem to indicate that something is wrong with the rifle, and not the ammunition. In that case, I would look for some kind of interference. With your metal working/machinist skills, you should be able to detect anything obvious. If you don't quickly find a problem, then I would make a phone call to savage.

I'm sorry for your difficulty. It is frustrating and disappointing to have a problem with a new gun. I've been watching for a distributor to get a 6.5 creedmoor, savage predator/hunter in stock, and so I envy you in spite of your dilemma.

Inspect the fired brass, are there any scratches or othe marks in the brass to indicate a chamber issue? Is the ammunition from the same lot? I'd contact both Hornady and Savage customer service and talk to them. To not contact both manufacturers might lead to the same problems not getting fixed if the problem is in the quality control of one of these to companies.

Something that can be overlooked... Is it hard to only retract the bolt?? Or is it hard to rotate the bolt from the closed position before retracting it?? Sometimes debris can get into the bolt lug recess and make things sticky...

@.300wthby: That's the point I poorly tried to make in my previous post. It seems that the original poster is saying that the bolt is hard to pull back, and not hard to lift. That's a big difference in symptoms and would likely make a big difference in diagnosis. If the bolt is hard to pull back (as he says), then I would look at the rifle before the ammunition.

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